Lens Cleaning Materials

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Leica Photography : One Thread

For years, I cleaned my lens with the paper tissues they give you in the photo stores. When I used chemicals, I would use either the universal solvent, (water), or a bit of Windex diluted with water. But now I see there are cloths, and other stuff on the market, and warnings about damage to the coatings on the lens.

What do you use for thorough cleaning, that is recommended and will not cause coating damage.

Thanks for that, and Cheers. PN

-- Paul Nelson (clrfarm@comswest.net.au), July 03, 2001

Answers

I (gently) use Eclipse cleaning solution & Pec Pads, made by Photographic Solutions (www.photographicsolutions.com), regular cotton swabs (Q-tips, etc.), & microfiber cloths.

-- Christopher Chen (furcafe@cris.com), July 03, 2001.

I like the micro fiber cloths as well, and sometimes use a tiny dot of alcohol if there is a lot of junk on the filter. I truly dislike "lens cleaning tissue" as it leaves all kinds of streaks and feels abrasive.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), July 03, 2001.

I generally use a blower brush and microfiber cloth on those rare occasions when I actually clean a lens. I'll use a bit of lens cleaning fluid to get rid of dried-on junk.

Lens papers aren't good for anything but creating cleaning marks.

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), July 03, 2001.


I prefer the microfiber cloths, preceded by a soft brush. I try to carry an ear syringe to use as a blower. They move more air than than most of the blower brushes sold as photo accessories. The sequence is: Blow, brush and wipe if necessary.

I avoid canned gas blowers for lenses. They seem to leave a residue if not used quite right. There's also a risk of liquid gas striking the glass and cracking it by the rapid supercooling.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), July 04, 2001.


An alternative view....

I had a camera shop for 10 years, before that did news photography...so I've cleaned a lens or two.

My standard procedure evolved to be ROR and Kimwipes for heavy gunk and green Windex and Kimwipes for light gunk.

Many have had trouble with ROR; the reason is that it sorta dissolved ordinary tissues (Kodak etc), leaving smears that can be difficult to remove. Kimwipes don't do that. Also, there's a knack to using ROR; not too much, wipe it around a couple of times and then clean it right off with a fresh tissue.

For most cleaning, green Windex and Kimwipes work fine. Don't spray the Windex onto the lens; put some in a little bottle and dribble it on the tissue. Blue Windex contains ammonia and has been known to clean soft internal lens coatings right off. The few examples I know of were very old lenses, but it's not worth the risk.

It's vitally important to blow and brush off any grit before cleaning the lens. The canned stuff _can_ blow out propellant that's really hard to remove and I suppose it's possible to crack an element if enough propellant is blown onto it.

As for cloths...well, two people sitting there bellied up to the counter in my shop managed to put big scratches across their own lenses while cleaning them with cloths, one of them while arguing with me about the possibility of that happening!

IMHO there's just no way a cloth can be kept clean enough and grit-free enough to be sure that won't happen.

-- John Hicks (jbh@magicnet.net), July 04, 2001.



Tissue or micro-fibre? Depends on what's at hand. For cleaning liquid, isopropanol from your friendly neighbourhood pharmacist. What you get there is much cleaner (i.e., free of odd stuff) than anything sold for photographic purposes.

Bob, your advice with the syringe necessitates a trip to the pharmacist for me!

-- Oliver Schrinner (piraya@hispavista.com), July 04, 2001.

I use Lenspen to clean my Leica and Carl Zeiss lenses. Very convenience and very clean. I always carry a Lenspen while traveling abroad.

-- martin tai (martin.tai@capcanada.com), July 04, 2001.

The first order is to make sure all grit is off the lens before cleaning. I agree the photo blower-brushes are a joke. They have no airpressure and the bristles are cheap synthetic. Get an ear syringe from the drugstore and a *soft* camel-hair brush from an art supply or beauty supply, and cut the handle short. Keep it in a ziplock bag, *never* handle the bristles with your fingers as they absorb oil.

CLeaning fluids: ROR. It contains ammonia, one whiff will confirm that. Most of the rest of the commercial fluids are mostly alcohol and water. Actually alcohol is only slightly more polar than water, so it is only marginally better as a solvent, and an inorganic one at that--unfortunately fingerprints are organic in nature. That's where the ammonia comes in. I've used ROR on all my lenses, including my collapsible Summicron (with notoriously soft coating) before I sealed it forever behind a UV filter, and not had any problem. I also use ROR on viewfinder glass and filters, including the B+W MRC's, but it smears badly on other multi-coated filters and requires re-cleaning with plain water.

Wiping materials: Paper tissues (lens tissue, Baywipes, Kimwipes etc.)are ok *only* when wet. Used dry their fibres can scratch softer coatings. For drying, the microfiber cloths or a square cut from old, well-washed 100% cotton white (so you can see when it needs washing) T-shirt or underwear work best. These should be kept in a ziplock bag to prevent grit adhesion and used only for drying with the gentlest touch(the biggest cause of scratches is *scrubbing*), then immediately replaced in the ziplock bag.

I've said before that I'm one who keeps UV filters on my lenses at (almost) all times. I find that I can simply breathe on a B+W MRC (Multi-Resistant-Coating) filter and wipe it with a handkerchief and have never gotten a scratch on one.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), July 04, 2001.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ